Customer Review

Camilla Lackberg's first two books, "The Ice Princess" and "The Preacher" majored on Erica Falck, with major support from Patrik Hedstrom. This is very much Hedstrom's book, and Falck plays a lesser role. There remains a story arc around her sister that projects from the first two books, but you don't need to have read those to understand it, because there is a subtle recap.

It's a tale with an interesting construction, alternating between the present day and earlier times. A well to do lady has an affair with a stonecutter in the 1920's, and the question is how this intersects with the murder of the small daughter of one of Erica's friends. Lackberg captures very well the damage that the event causes to families but also to a small community. Unusually, there are a lot of unsympathetic characters, and the desire to give quite a few a good slap is very strong. There are incompetent policemen, selfish women, people who openly use others and people who interfere in others' lives. There are interesting comments on how we raise our children too.

The fifth star is withheld because if you've worked out the connection between the two stories, the last chapters lack suspense. But I'll look forward to the fourth book.

0Comment|
10 people found this helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?